Chatbots Settings Guides Index

Sukino's Findings: A Practical Index to AI Roleplay

Finding learning resources for AI roleplaying can be tricky, as most of them are hidden away in Reddit threads, Neocities pages, Discord chats, and Rentry notes. It has a lovely Web 1.0, pre-social media vibe to it, with nothing really indexed or centralized and always something cool buried somewhere you haven't discovered yet.

To make things a little easier, I've compiled a list of interesting, up-to-date information about it. Think of it as a crash course to help you get a modern AI roleplaying setup, understand how everything works and where to find things.

Want to know more? Check out my Guides page, where I share botmaking tips and little quality of life things I have discovered. If you have any feedback, want to talk, make a request, or share something, reach me at: sukinocreates@proton.me or @sukinocreates on Discord.

  1. Getting Started
    1. Picking an Interface
    2. Setting Up an AI Model
      1. If You Want to Run an AI Locally
      2. If You Want to Use an Online AI
        1. Free Providers
        2. Paid Providers
  2. Where to Find Stuff
    1. Chatbots/Character Cards
      1. Character Generators
    2. Local LLM/Models
      1. Figuring Out Which Models You Can Run
      2. Default Recommendations
      3. More Recommendations
    3. Presets, Prompts and Jailbreaks
      1. Presets for Text Completion Models
      2. Presets for Chat Completion Models
      3. More Prompts
    4. SillyTavern Resources
      1. Extensions
      2. Themes
      3. Quick Replies
      4. Setups
  3. Learning How To Roleplay
    1. Basic Knowledge
    2. How Everything Works and How to Solve Problems
    3. How to Make Chatbots
      1. Getting to Know the Other Templates
  4. Image Generation
    1. Guides
    2. Models
    3. Resources
  5. Other Indexes

Latest Updates:
I always make small additions when I come across something new or think of a new way to organize things. I don't want to bother writing notes for everything, so I'll only do it for major updates, or to highlight something.

2025-05-03 — Updated the free methods to get access to Deepseek and to rip cards from JanitorAI.
2025-04-30 — Added a new Character Generators section, check them out.
2025-04-29 — Tried to make the Learning How To Roleplay less overwhelming, with clearer categories and a more logical flow. Updated Banned Tokens description to reflect that it is actually compatible with TabbyAPI and other exllamav2 based backends, give it a try if you use them.
2025-04-20 — Updated the section about online AI models and the default recommendation for local models. Added new places to get model recommendations.
2025-04-17 — Small visual makeover. Added new information about the free ways to use Deepseek. New themes and extensions added. Still slowly building the Image Generation section.
2025-04-14 — Still slowly building the Image Generation section, but today I updated the If You Want to Use an Online AI section with the main providers and new information, and the Local LLM/Models section with more recommended models.
2025-04-10 — For the last few weeks I've been making small additions to the index as I come across something interesting, but I haven't documented any of them, sorry. There are new things in several sections. Highlights for Lawliot's Local LLM Testing (for AMD GPUs) and Baratan's Language Model Creative Writing Scoring Index on the LLM section, the SpookySkelly's The Graveyard index, and more presets I found and people recommended. Today I am also starting an Image Generation section, which I will slowly build up over the next few days.

Getting Started

Picking an Interface

First, you will need a frontend, the interface where the roleplaying takes place and where your characters live.

I will only recommend solutions that are open source, private, secure, well maintained, and don't lock you into a closed ecosystem. So if you've heard of a service that's not listed here, it's probably because it doesn't meet these criteria.

  • Install SillyTavern: Repository · How to Install · Simple Installation Guide · Pinokio — SillyTavern is the go-to frontend for AI roleplay. While there are alternatives, it's the most feature-rich, actively developed, and customizable option, with broad system support and a strong community. It runs on Windows, Linux, Mac, Android, and Docker. iOS users, see the workaround below. To install it, follow one of the guides. But if you're not very tech-savvy and don't want to deal with gits, command prompts, and bat files, you can try Pinokio, which has a one-click installer for a bunch of AI stuff, including SillyTavern.
    • Access SillyTavern Remotely Via Tailscale: How to Install · Simple Installation Guide — Tailscale creates a secure, private tunnel between your devices, like a LAN, but over the Internet. This allows you to host SillyTavern on one device and access it from any other, anywhere with an Internet connection. You can even share it with your friends. It's the best way to keep it in sync with your PC and phone, and practically the only way to use it on iOS (as long as you have an always-on device to host it on, like a PC, old phone, Raspberry Pi, or home server). If you're tech-savvy, you can also rent a inexpensive VPS to run it remotely, it's pretty lightweight.
  • Or Use Agnastic: Repository · Open and Start Using — If you can’t install SillyTavern or just want a simpler online option, Agnastic is shaping up to be a solid alternative. It’s free, runs entirely in your browser, and doesn’t require an account. It even includes some free models to try out—though better free options are covered in the next section, so don’t choose it just for that.
  • or RisuAI: Repository · Open and Start Using — Another online alternative. Has a different set of features than Agnastic, and some users find the UI more friendly, so it may be more to your liking.

There's nothing stopping you from starting with these online frontends and later migrating to SillyTavern if you feel the need for a more complete solution. Just keep in mind that you'll miss out on most of the modern and advanced features, and that most of the content and setups you find online won't apply to you.

Throughout this guide, I'll assume you're using SillyTavern, but the instructions should be easily applicable to the alternatives—you'll just need to look for the equivalent options.

Setting Up an AI Model

If You Want to Run an AI Locally

It's uncensored, free, and private. Requires a computer or server with a dedicated GPU or a Mac with an M-series chip. If you don't know if you have dedicated GPU, Google or ask ChatGPT for instructions on checking for your system.

There are two main local AI model formats to pick from, GGUF and EXL2. If you don't have a preference yet, go with GGUFs, they are easier to find, easier to use, and have more sizes to fit all memory sizes.

You'll need a backend, the program that will run your AI models and connect to your frontend via a local API. Choose one and go pick a model and a suitable preset.

  • KoboldCPP: Repository · Sukino's Guide · HibikiAss' Guide — Runs GGUF models. Don't know what to pick? Go with this one. Designed with roleplaying in mind, so it has some exclusive features for us roleplayers that will come up later in the guide. Comes with its own roleplaying frontend that you can use if you want to, but you don't have to interact with it. Read the notes on the release page to know which version you need to download.
  • TabbyAPI: Repository · Installation Guide — Runs EXL2 models. Probably will be the most performant if you have enough VRAM to run everything smoothly.
  • LM Studio: Official Page — Runs GGUF models. Pretty barebones, but has it's fans for how easy it is to use, and for being able to download and manage the models within it's UI.
  • TextGen WebUI/Oobabooga: Repository · Installation Guide — Runs GGUF and EXL2 models. The most versatile and it's strength is having the best integrated UI to chat with the AI model.
If You Want to Use an Online AI

This is where censorship and privacy become an issue, as you will be sending everything to these services, and they can log your activity, block your requests, or ban you at will. Stay safe, use burner accounts if you feel like it would be bad to have your sessions tied to your name, and be careful not to accidentally send sensitive information, as most of the time your data will be used to train new AI models.

Note that you are free to switch between AIs during a roleplaying session, so even if you reach the limits of these APIs or they become too expensive, you can simply use another model for a while. Configure a Connection Profile for each AI with your favorite preset and make switching between them a breeze. Check my guide about it.

You'll need a service that provides the AI model of your choice and an API key to connect to it with your frontend. Choose a service and go pick a suitable preset.

Free Providers

These change all the time, but I will try to keep this updated with the options I know of.

  • Gemini on Google AI Studio: API Key · Rate Limits · How To Use Multiple Keys— There are several Gemini models, and they are updated frequently, so their quality for roleplaying is constantly changing. Has strict security checks, so a good preset is essential, and you may still get refusals. Requires a Google account, and unless you're in the UK, Switzerland, or the EEA, your information will be collected and used for training purposes; well, it's Google, can't expect much else.
  • Deepseek on OpenRouter: deepseek/deepseek-r1:free · deepseek/deepseek-chat-v3-0324:free · Rate Limits — R1 is the flagship thinking model, and V3 is the non-thinking model. Requires opting into data training. If your balance is under 10 credits (1 credit = 1 US dollar), you're limited to 50 requests/day. With 10+ credits, the limit jumps to 1000. This quota is shared across all models tagged :free, so while Deepseek is the top choice, you can try other models. If you top up credits, be careful not to accidentally use paid models or features (like Web Search that can be disabled on your Chat Completion Presets), or you'll need to add more. Some users report problems with the Chutes provider; if you have problems with repetition, incoherence, and swipes with the same output, force OpenRouter to use a different provider.
    • Deepseek on Chutes: Registration · API Key — You can use Chutes' models directly from their API, bypassing OpenRouter rate limits completely. Create an account using the first link, save your fingerprint somewhere safe so you can login again in the future, and create an API key using the second link. Now you have three different methods of connecting to it:
      • OpenRouter Integration — The simplest method, is compatible with both Text and Chat Completion, and will work on every AI app that connects to OpenRouter. Go to this page, click on Chutes and insert your Chutes API Key. Now, on your frontend, select only Chutes as your Model Providers in your connection settings. Leave Allow fallback providers checked if you still want to use models that are not available through Chutes with your OpenRouter rate limits.
      • OpenAI Compatible Chat Completion Connection — Bypasses OpenRouter completely, but this is the worst option because you lose access to most samplers. To set up the model on your frontend, follow the instructions at the end of this section. Chutes' OpenAI compatible endpoint is https://llm.chutes.ai/v1/, and the models are deepseek-ai/DeepSeek-V3-0324 and deepseek-ai/DeepSeek-R1.
      • vLLM Text Completion Connection — Bypasses OpenRouter completely, while still letting you use all the samplers. To use it, create a new Text Completion connection with vLLM as the API Type and insert your API key in the vLLM API key field. If the model list loads when you press the Connect button, you are golden, just select the right model there.
  • Mistral on Le Plateforme: API Key · Rate Limits — Mistral Large 2411 is their best model. Requires opting into data training and may ask for phone number verification.
  • Command on Cohere: API Key · Rate Limits — Command-A and Command-R+ 104B (not 08-2024) are their best models.
  • Free LLM API Resources: List on Github — Consistently updated list of revendors offering access to free models via API. However, you cannot verify the real quality of the models; they may provide a very low-quality version to free users.
  • KoboldAI Colab: Official · Unnoficial — You can borrow a GPU for a few hours to run KoboldCPP at Google Colab. It's easier than it sounds, just fill in the fields with the desired GGUF model link and context size, and run. They are usually good enough to handle small models, from 8B to 12B, and sometimes even 24B if you're lucky and get a big GPU. Check the section on where to find local models to get an idea of what are the good models.
  • AI Horde: Official Page · FAQ — A crowdsourced solution that allows users to host models on their systems for anyone to use. The selection of models depends on what people are hosting at the time. It's free, but there are queues, and people hosting models get priority. By default, the host can't see your prompts, but the client is open source, so they could theoretically modify it to see and store them, though no identifying information (like your ID or IP) would be available to tie them back to you. Read their FAQ to be aware of any real risks.

Most of these options work on a pay-per-request model, so the more you play, the more expensive it gets. Be careful with some services, they can quickly turn into a money sink.

Make sure you choose a provider that offers Context/Prompt Caching if available, and read their documentation to learn how their implementation works, so you don't have to keep paying for tokens you've already sent, which increases the cost of long sessions.

  • Corporate Models: Generally the smartest models we have today and will give you the best experience you can get.
    • Claude: Official API · AWS API · Prompt Caching · Caching Optimization for SillyTavern — State of the art, the best roleplaying experience you can get, but very expensive.
    • Deepseek: Official API · Pricing · Context Caching — The economical option, with a few quirks. Use the official API, it's way cheaper than any other provider, with off-peak discounts and context caching already enabled by default.
    • GPT: Official API · Azure API — The one everyone knows, not as good as Claude, better than Deepseek. Don't buy a ChatGPT subscription, it won't give you an API key, so it can't be used with AI roleplaying interfaces.
    • Grok: Official API · Pricing — X has finally released its API, and the reception from the roleplaying community has been mixed. The model seems really sensitive to prompts, so maybe we need someone to make a good preset to make it shine.
    • Jamba: Official API · Pricing
    • RealmPlay: Official API · Documentation
  • Revendors: There are vendors that provide you with access to the corporate models and some of the same AI models that people run locally, at every price point. The most famous is OpenRouter, but you can find alternatives if you shop around, including cheaper and subscription-based ones. Here are a few resources to help you find some of them, but these are by no means the only options out there, so do your research as well:
  • /aicg/ meta — Comparison of how the different services/models perform in roleplay. Don't take this as gospel, they vary depending on the preset and bots you use, but it can help you set your expectations for what you can pay for.

Your model's provider/proxy isn't available via Chat Completion in your frontend?
Check their pages and documentation for an OpenAI-compatible endpoint address, which looks like this https://api.provider.ai/v1. Basically, it mimics the way OpenAI's ChatGPT connects, adding compatibility with almost any program that supports GPT itself. To use it, create a new Chat Completion connection with Custom (OpenAI-compatible) as the source, and manually enter the Custom Endpoint address and your API key in the appropriate fields. If the model list loads when you press the Connect button, you are golden, just select the right model there.

Where to Find Stuff

Chatbots/Character Cards

Chatbots, or simply bots, come in image files, or rarely in json files, called character cards. The chatbot's definitions are embedded in the image's metadata, so never convert it to another format or resize it, or it will become a simple image. You simply import the character card into your roleplaying frontend and the bot will be configured automatically.

  • Chub AI — Formerly known as CharacterHub, this is the primary hub for chatbot sharing. Totally uncensored, for the good and the bad. It's also flooded with frustratingly low quality bots, so it can be hard to find the good stuff without knowing who the good creators are. For a better experience, create an account, block any tags that make you uncomfortable, and follow creators whose bots you like.
    • Chub Deslopfier — Browser script that tries to detect and hide extremely low quality cards.
  • Chatbots Webring — A webring in 2025? Cool! Automated index of bots from multiple creators directly from their personal pages. Could be a great way to find interesting characters without drowning in pages of low-effort sexbots on Chub. I mean, if the creator went to the trouble of setting up a website to host their bots, they must be into something, right?
  • Anchored Bots — Automatically updated directory of bots shared on 4chan without the need to access 4chan at all, what a blessing.
  • WyvernChat — A strictly moderated bot repository that is gaining popularity.
  • Character Tavern — Community-driven platform dedicated to creating and sharing AI Roleplay Character Cards.
  • AI Character Cards — Promises higher-quality cards though stricter moderation.
  • RisuRealm Standalone — Bots shared through the RisuRealm from RisuAI.
  • JannyAI — Archive of bots ripped from JanitorAI. If you are a migrating user, this may be of interest to you.
  • PygmalionAI — Pygmalion isn't as big on the scene anymore, but they still host bots.
  • Character Archive — Archived and mirrored cards from many various sources. Can't find a bot you had or that was deleted? Look here.
  • Chatlog Scraper — Want to read random people's funny/cool interactions with their bots? This site tries to scrape and catalog them.
Character Generators

Nothing beats a handmade chatbot, but it's handy to have the AI generate characters for you, perhaps to use as a base, or to quickly roleplay with an existing character.

Local LLM/Models

Figuring Out Which Models You Can Run

Want to run a model locally, but are confused by all those names and numbers? No worries! First, you just need to understand four key concepts:

  • Total VRAM is the memory you have available in GPU, your graphics card. This is different than your RAM memory. If you don't know how much memory you have, or if you have dedicated GPU, Google or ask ChatGPT for instructions on checking for your system.
  • In roleplay, the Context Length is how many past messages the AI can hold in memory, measured in tokens, between a syllable and a word. 8192 tokens is pretty good; users generally prefer 16384 for long roleplaying sessions, but you may need to choose a worse model to be able to fit everything in your GPU. An oversized context is useless if your model can't use all the information, so don't go beyond 16K for now, as most models compatible with common domestic hardware can't use it effectively.
  • Models have sizes, calculated in billions of parameters, represented by a number followed by B. Larger model sizes are generally smarter, but not necessarily better at roleplaying, and require more memory to run. So, as a rule of thumb, a model with 12B parameters is smarter than one with 8B parameters.
  • Models are shared in various quantizations, or quants. The lower the number, the dumber the model gets, but less memory you need to run it. The best balance between compatibility and intelligence for AI roleplaying purposes is a GGUF IQ4_XS (or Q4_K_S if there isn't one available), or an EXL2 between 4.0~4.5 bpw.

Simple, right? Total VRAM, context length, model sizes, and quants. Now we will use this information with one of these two calculators:

  • SillyTavernAI.com's Calculator — This tool isn't as precise, but is the easiest to use. Just enter your Total VRAM and desired Context Size, then click Load Models to see a list of compatible options. Once it loads, sort by Total VRAM and find the highest number followed by B—this indicates the largest model your hardware can run smoothly at IQ4_XS or Q4_K_S. For example, if your system can handle an 8B model, you can run basically any model in that size range or smaller. But I suggest that you choose a Default Recommendation bellow instead of the ones suggested by the calculator, their algorithm favors older models not fine-tuned for roleplaying, as they are more widely used and have had more time to gather more reviews and downloads.
  • Sam McLeod's Calculator — If you are a bit more tech-savvy, this calculator is pretty self-explanatory and will let you find the perfect model size and quant for your system. Just adjust the values until the FP16 K/V Cache bar fits into the available VRAM of your GPU.
Default Recommendations

These are the most commonly recommended models by 2025-04. They're not necessarily the freshest or my favorites, but they're tried and true.

Keep in mind that there isn't one best model for everyone. Every model, from small local ones to large corporate ones, has a different "flavor," with different biases and specializations. This means that a model may excel at one type of roleplay, but struggle with another. For this reason, you're unlikely to get a definitive answer as to which model is best when you ask around, so it's worth trying a few and mixing it up for variety.

Also, a newer versions of a model with the same name aren't always an upgrade. In fact, due to the nature of how training works, they tend to be very different beasts. So don't assume you need to update your favorite model, or that there's something wrong with your setup if the newer, shinier version feels worse.

If you're overwhelmed by the choices, just pick the first model for the size you want and go down the list when you are ready to test more models; I've tried to put the most well-rounded model fine-tuned for uncensored roleplaying first. Remember to pick a suitable preset for your model too.

More Recommendations
  • HuggingFace — This is where you actually download models from, but browsing through it is not very helpful if you don't know what to look for.
    • Bartowski · mradermacher — I don't know how they do it, but these two keep releasing GGUF quants of every slightly noteworthy model that comes out really quickly. Even if you don't use GGUF models, it's worth checking their profile to see what new models are released.
  • Baratan's Language Model Creative Writing Scoring Index — Models scored based on compliance, comprehension, coherence, creativity and realism.
  • HobbyAnon's LLM Recommendations — Curated list of models of multiple sizes and instruct templates.
  • Cracked Pepper — Models classified by roleplay style, their strengths and weaknesses, and their horniness and positivity bias.
  • Lawliot's Local LLM Testing (for AMD GPUs) — Models tested on an RX6600, a card with 8GB VRAM, valuable even for people with other GPUs, since they list each models' strengths and weaknesses.
  • HibikiAss' KCCP Colab Models Review — Good list, my only advice would be to ignore the 13B and 11B categories as they are obsolete models.
  • EQ-Bench Creative Writing Leaderboard — Emotional intelligence benchmarks for LLMs.
  • UGI Leaderboard — Uncensored General Intelligence. A benchmark measuring both willingness to answer and accuracy in fact-based contentious questions.
  • SillyTavernAI Subreddit — Want to find what models people are using lately? Do not start a new thread asking for them. Check the weekly Best Models/API Discussion, including the last few weeks, to see what people are testing and recommending. If you want to ask for a suggestion in the thread, say how much VRAM and RAM you have available, or the provider you want to use, and what your expectations are.

Presets, Prompts and Jailbreaks

Always use a good preset. They are also called prompts or jailbreaks, although this name can be a bit misleading as they are not just for making these AI models write smut and violence; the NSFW part is usually optional.

LLM models are first and foremost corporate-made assistants, so giving them well-structured instructions on how to roleplay and what the user generally expects from a roleplaying session is really beneficial to your experience. Each preset will play a little differently, based on the creator's preferences and the quirks they found with the models, so try different ones to see which one is more to your liking.

Presets for Text Completion Models

Presets are listed by the instruct template with which they are compatible. If the instruct template isn't obvious from the name of the model you're using, you can usually find that information on the original creator's page.

To import these presets on SillyTavern, click on the AI Response Formatting button, the third one with an A in the top bar, and press the Master Import button on the top-right of the window. Make sure the ones you downloaded are selected in the drop-down menus. Always read their descriptions to make sure you don't need to tweak any other setting.

  • sphiratrioth666 — Alpaca, ChatML, Llama, Metharme/Pygmalion, Mistral
  • MarinaraSpaghetti — ChatML, Mistral
  • Virt-io — Alpaca, ChatML, Command R, Llama, Mistral
  • debased-ai — Gemma, Llama
  • Sukino — ChatML, Deepseek, Gemma, Llama, Metharme/Pygmalion, Mistral
  • The Inception — Llama, Metharme/Pygmalion, Qwen — This one is pretty big, so I wouldn't recommend for small models. Make sure your model is smart enough to handle it.
  • CommandRP — Command R/R+
Presets for Chat Completion Models

Unlike text completion presets, this format is much more model agnostic. You can pick any of them and they will probably work fine, but they are almost always designed to deal with the quirks of specific models and to get the best experience out of them. So while it's recommended that you pick one that's appropriate for the model of your choice, feel free to shop around and experiment, or test your favorite preset on the "wrong" models.

To import these presets on SillyTavern, click on the AI Response Configuration button, the first one with the sliders in the top bar, and a windows titled Chat Completion Presets should pop up — If it has another name, you aren't connected via Chat Completion, fix it first. Now, just press the Import preset icon on the top-right of the window, and make sure the one you downloaded is selected in the drop-down menu. Always read their descriptions to make sure you don't need to tweak any other setting.

Your model's provider/proxy isn't available via Chat Completion in your frontend?
Go back to the If You Want to Use an Online AI section to learn how to add it.

Your model wastes time explaining itself before playing its turn?
It means that you are using a reasoning model. This new type of model will always "think" before writing its responses.
This reasoning step shouldn't be visible to you unless you open the Thinking... window above the model's turn.
If it is geting mixed with your bot's actual responses, make sure your frontend is updated to a version that actually supports reasoning models, and that support for them isn't disabled.
In SillyTavern, to find this option, click on the AI Response Formatting button, the third one with an A in the top bar, and expand the Reasoning section to enable the Auto-Parse option.

You will see these pages talking about Latte from time to time, it is just a nickname for GPT Latest.

More Prompts

These are really good prompts that you need to build or configure yourself, unlike the common presets they aren't ready to import files.

SillyTavern Resources

Extensions
  • Notebook — Adds a place to store your notes. Supports rich text formatting.
  • Prompt Inspector — Adds an option to inspect and edit output prompts before sending them to the server.
  • Multi-Provider API Key Switcher — Manage and automatically rotate/remove multiple API keys for various AI providers in SillyTavern. Handles rate limits, depleted credits, and invalid keys.
  • EmojiPicker— Adds a button to quickly insert emojis into a chat message.
  • Chat Top Info Bar — Adds a top bar to the chat window with shortcuts to quick actions.
  • Input History — Adds buttons and shortcuts in the input box to go through your last inputs and /commands.
  • Quick Persona — Adds a dropdown menu for selecting user personas from the chat bar.
  • More Flexible Continues — More flexibility for continues.
  • Rewrite — Dynamically rewrite, shorten, or expand selected text within messages.
  • Dialogue Colorizer — Automatically color quoted text for character and user persona dialogue.
  • Greetings Placeholder — Adds dynamic, customizable elements in character greetings.
  • Timelines — Timeline based navigation of chat histories.
  • Tracker — Customizable tracking feature to monitor character interactions and story elements.
  • Stepped Thinking — Forces your AI to generate a character's thoughts (emotions, plans - whatever you wish) before running the regular prompt generation.
  • LALib — Library of helpful STScript commands.
  • Guided Generations — Modular, context-aware tools for shaping, refining, and guiding AI responses—ideal for roleplay, story, and character-driven chats.
  • Cache Refresh — Automatically keeps your AI's cache "warm" by sending periodic, minimal requests. While designed primarily for Claude Sonnet, it works with other models as well. By preventing cache expiration, you can significantly reduce API costs.
  • WorldInfoDrawer — Alternative UI for World Info/Lorebooks.
  • SimpleQRBarToggle — Adds a button to toggle your Quick Replies bar.
  • QuickRepliesDrawer — Alternative UI for Quick Replies.
  • NoAss — Sends the entire context as a single User message, avoiding the User/Assistant switch, which is designed for problem solving, not roleplaying. Some AIs seem to work better with this workaround.
Themes
Quick Replies
  • CharacterProvider's Quick Replies — Quick Replies with pre-made prompts, a great way to pace your story. You can stop and focus on a dialog with a certain character, or request a short visual/sensory information.
  • Guided Generations — Check the extension version instead. It's more up to date.
Setups
  • Fake LINE — Transform your setup into an immersive LINE messenger clone to chat with your bots.
  • Proper Adventure Gaming With LLMs — AI Dungeon-like text-adventure setup, great if you are interested more on adventure scenarios than interacting with individual characters.
  • Disco Elysium Skill Lorebook — Automatically and manually triggered skill checks with the personalities of Disco Elysium.
  • SX-3: Character Cards Environment — A complex modular system to generate starting messages, swap scenarios, clothes, weather and additional roleplay conditions, using only vanilla SillyTavern.
  • Stomach Statbox Prompts — A well though-out system that uses statboxes and lorebooks to keep track of the status of your character's... stomach? Hmm, sure... Cool.

Learning How To Roleplay

Basic Knowledge

How Everything Works and How to Solve Problems

The following are guides that will teach you how to roleplay, how things really work, and give you tips on how to make your sessions better. If you are more interested in learning how to make your own bots, skip to the next section and come back when you want to learn more.

  • Sukino's Guides & Tips for AI Roleplay — Shameless self-promotion here. This page isn't really a structured guide, but a collection of tips and best practices related to AI roleplaying that you can read at your own pace. I recommend that you at least read the sections on how to use your turns and what to do when the AI writes something you don't like.
  • Geechan's Anti-Impersonation Guide — Simple, concise guide on how to troubleshoot model impersonation issues, going step by step from the most likely culprit to least likely culprit.
  • Statuo's Guide to Getting More Out of Your Bot Chats — Statuo has been on the scene for a long while, and he still updates this guide. Really good information about different areas of AI Roleplaying.
  • How 2 Claude — Interested in taking a peek behind the curtain? In how all this AI roleplaying wizardry really works? How to fix your annoyances? Then read this! It applies to all AI models, despite the name.
  • onrms
  • SillyTavern Docs — Not sure how something works? Don't know what an option is for? Read the docs!

How to Make Chatbots

Botmaking is pretty free-form, almost anything you write will work, and everyone does it a little differently, so don't think you need to follow templates or formats to make good bots, plain text is more than fine...

  • Character Creation Guide (+JED Template) — ...That said, in my opinion, the JED+ template is great for beginners, a nice set of training wheels. It helps you get your character started by simply filling a character sheet, while remaining flexible enough to accommodate almost any single character concept. Some advice in the guide seems a bit odd, especially on how to write an intro and the premise stuff, but the template itself is good, and you'll find different perspectives from other botmakers in the following guides.
  • Online Editors: SrJuggernaut · Desune · Agnastic — You should keep an online editor in your toolbox too, to quick edit or read a card, independent of your frontend.
  • Writing Resources - AI Dynamic Storytelling Wiki — Seriously, this isn't directly about chatbots, but we can all benefit from improving our writing skills. This wiki is a whole other rabbit hole, so don't check it out right away, just keep it in mind. Once you're comfortable with the basics of botmaking, come back and dive in.
  • Tagging & You: A Guide to Tagging Your Bots on Chub AI — You want to publish your bot on Chub? Read the guide written by one of the moderators on how to tag it correctly. Don't make the moderator's life harder, tag your stuff correctly so people can find it easier.

Now that the basic tools are covered, these are great resources for further reading.

Getting to Know the Other Templates

Again, don't think you need to use these formats to make good bots, they have their use cases, but plain text is more than fine these days. However, even if you don't plan to use them, these guides are still worth reading, as the people who write them have valuable insights into how to make your bots better.

Image Generation

W.I.P.

I like to think of this part as an extension of the Botmaking section, since the card's art is one of the most crucial elements of your bot. Your bot will be displayed among many others, so an eye-catching and appropriate image that communicates what your bot is all about is as important as a book cover. But since this information is useful for all users, not just botmakers, it deserves a section of its own.

Guides

Models

Currently, there are three main SDXL-based models competing for the anime aesthetic crowd. This is a list of these base models and some recommendations of merges for each branch:

Resources

  • Danbooru Tags: Tag Groups · Related Tags — Most anime models are trained based on Danbooru tags. You can simply consult their wiki to find the right tags to prompt the concepts you want.
  • Danbooru/e621 Artists' Styles and Characters in NoobAI-XL — Catalog of artists and characters in NoobAI-XL's training data, with sample images showing their distinctive styles and how to prompt them. Even if you're using a different model, this is still a valuable page, since most anime models share many of the same artists in their training data.
  • Danbooru Tag Scraper — More updated list of Danbooru tags for you to import into your UI's autocomplete. Also has a Python script for you to scrape it yourself.
  • AIBooru — 4chan's repository of AI generated images. Many of them have their model, prompts and settings listed, so you can learn a bit more of many user's preferences and how to prompt something you like.

Other Indexes

More people sharing collections of stuff. Just pay attention to when these guides and resources were created and last updated, they may be outdated or contain outdated practices. A lot of these guides come from a time when AI roleplaying was pretty new and we didn't have advanced models with big context windows, everyone was learning and experimenting with what worked best.

Archived and previous versions on Wayback Machine

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Pub: 08 Feb 2025 03:42 UTC
Edit: 04 May 2025 19:48 UTC
Views: 47700
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